[jwiede]

What is the plan (and timeframe) for the Maxwell C4D plugin to support converting particles into Maxwell's particle primitive? Also, will only TPs be supported, or will others (specifically X-Particles) also be supported? Thanks!

[JDHill]

I am currently working on support for Thinking Particles (i.e. bare particles, with no geo attached) rendered directly using the MaxwellParticles extension (sorry, I never give a timeframe -- too many variables outside my control). As for support for 3rd-party plugins, that would depend on how they work. I see the X-Particles web page states "X-Particles can also emit Thinking Particles," so that might tend to imply it could be made to work without making our plugin too dependent upon theirs.

[eric nixon]

Actually X-particles doesnt look very promising re. particles IMO seems like its got the wrong name (it seems geared to motion graphics which is also odd because that area seems quite well covered by the host app and other plugs??)

Good video here about TurbulenceFD and integration with ThinkingParticles (see 2/3 thru) also it covers using normal particles with TFD

https://vimeo.com/30584230

heres my screen, you can see the dust is following the fire, the ball is keyframed

[Aniki]

generally Thinking Particles is an extremely limited module once you get to have more than a few thousand particles doing semicomplex stuff..

XParticles is just another framework based on the same technical base. The TFD Workflow is a nice idea, I used that on this test: http://www.uglykids.org/mov/MW_Milkbubble.mp4

Still its tedious to work with as its singlethreaded and old..

[eric nixon]

Nice animation

Are you talking about C4D, turbulence is fast here.. is it really single theaded.. are you aware it uses the gfx card?

How did you mesh the TFD?

[eric nixon]

But TP seems ok for generating a few 'sparks particles' to 'ignite' the TFD.. Hopefully we get a 'cloud' function to render this in maxwell one day, until then just composit..

I guess I'm wondering if we wil ever see a modern particle system for C4D and if we need it. If we can generate, say 300,000 source particles (that many seems quick enough here) then maxwell could interpolate a softer 'cloud' at render time..

[JDHill]

The MaxwellParticles extension can render multiple particles per exported particle.

[Aniki]

Nice animation

Are you talking about C4D, turbulence is fast here.. is it really single theaded.. are you aware it uses the gfx card?

How did you mesh the TFD?

Yeah, TP is dead slow when it comes to millions.. TFD is okayish but way to limited in its usability..

Have many particles being driven by TFD, then import them to RealFlow and meshing there;)

I guess I'm wondering if we wil ever see a modern particle system for C4D

wont be happening, I got my word from maxon, they don't develop into that direction unfortunately...

The MaxwellParticles extension can render multiple particles per exported particle.

I know, so can Krakatoa;) I think the Maxwellparticles feature is only the half way, to be really useful it would need voxelbased rendering, but I suppose this ain't going to happen inside Maxwell Render (which is perfectly fine with me, theres Mantra and Arnold for that;)

[JDHill]

I know, so can Krakatoa

Actually, I was replying to Eric.

[eric nixon]

The MaxwellParticles extension can render multiple particles per exported particle.

This is great news, I can see a nice workflow here

I wouldnt be so surprised if voxels turned up in maxwell.. dont know when though.

Aniki, was it tricky opening the TFD cache in realflow, any tips? are you using C4D? would that be an issue? And what is it that TFD cant do, I'm guessing liquids..

I've had some really cool results (sry didnt save... so no pics). I generate TP 'sparks' from dynamic collisions, affected by all the usual forces, then TFD it (usually at default settings - I'm noob) then a second group of TP 'smoke' is generated from the TFD.. sry geeking out, it just looked sick, and really fast to do. But took a long time to google the info, because everyone uses / misuses xpresso differently, so theres many confusing tuts out there...

[Aniki]

I didnt get the cache of TFD into RealFlow, I had Thinking Particles advected by the velocity channel of the TFD sim. These I exported to bin files, took ages as I used millions, like just below the upper 10 million limit C4D has. (unfortunately..) You could do different seeds though and merge them back together insider RealFlow, but meshing these also takes much longer than usual..

TFD for itself is too limited, as its not directable by forces, either gets diffused completely or sucked up and deleted..

[eric nixon]

thnx for info, yes that sounds painful..

as its not directable by forces

It does respond to global movement/obstacles and you can steer/seed it with any particles (normal or TP)

But I havent used it much, and prob wont be for a while.. so cant say much for certain..

[Aniki]

There are few workarounds but many limitations imho.

Last time we contacted the developer, he wasn't keen on or planning to extend the basic feature set or improve certain aspects, like converting the gridcache to particles, for instance.

[eric nixon]

Just watched your 2011 reel, its super slick , I can see that you have/need extensive control over the coreography, esp with clients involved. Maybe the area of high-end particle animation will always be led by more dedicated software.
It sounds like maxon and other 3rd parties have decided not to compete.. so there is a niche future for MAX afterall

For my needs I was thinking about a workflow to get organic motion for dust and smoke generated automatically by dynamic collisions, so fairly random, i.e. not coreographed, bit like a game engine..

[Aniki]

Just watched your 2011 reel, its super slick ,

Thanks;) new stuff coming soon, like about 5-7 recent projects I worked for arent included yet..

I can see that you have/need extensive control over the coreography, esp with clients involved. Maybe the area of high-end particle animation will always be led by more dedicated software.
It sounds like maxon and other 3rd parties have decided not to compete.. so there is a niche future for MAX afterall

unfortunately, yes, Maxon will stay focused on motiongraphic and designrelated stuff,...eventually that leads to Houdini on the long run, Max has nice plugins, but so far Autodesk recent plans revealed Maya FX will be the future application for these specialized vfx needs..

For my needs I was thinking about a workflow to get organic motion for dust and smoke generated automatically by dynamic collisions, so fairly random, i.e. not coreographed, bit like a game engine..

Depends on the complexity, you will hit walls inside Cinema 4D rather early or later, if you find (clumsy/tricky) workarounds for certain limitations, still it didn't work out for me to rely on it in the future..